Imagined crossover · Golden Age
What if Sherlock Holmes met Hercule Poirot?
The great detective meets the little grey cells. The two most famous detectives in fiction, one in retirement and one just beginning his English career. Each would recognise a mind as sharp as his own.
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The pair
Sherlock HolmesConsulting detectiveBy Arthur Conan Doyle · Sherlock Holmes novels · first in A Study in Scarlet
Hercule PoirotBelgian detective who relies on his “little grey cells”By Agatha Christie · Hercule Poirot · first in The Mysterious Affair at Styles
Chemistry8/10
Friction9/10
Would you read this crossover?
Where and when
London and the Sussex Downs
The late 1910s
The story
- How they might meet
- A Belgian refugee with a magnificent moustache writes to the retired beekeeper of the Sussex Downs about a poisoning that the police have closed too quickly.
- Why they would work
- The two most famous detectives in fiction, one in retirement and one just beginning his English career. Each would recognise a mind as sharp as his own.
- What each brings
- Holmes reads mud, ash and tobacco; Poirot reads people, order and psychology. Between them, no clue and no lie would survive.
- Where they would clash
- Both are vain, both like to reveal the answer with a flourish, and only one of them can gather the suspects in the drawing room.
Strengths compared
Sherlock Holmes Hercule Poirot
Our own ratings out of 10, for fun.
On the page together
The years in which each character's books were published.
Read your way in
Start with each character's first appearance.
- A Study in ScarletArthur Conan Doyle · 1887 · Sherlock Holmes's first appearanceBuy on Amazon
- The Mysterious Affair at StylesAgatha Christie · 1920 · Hercule Poirot's first appearanceBuy on Amazon
